At a meeting that went on till late on Wednesday in Mumbai, the newly constituted board of United Spirits took notice of United Bank of India's move to label Mallya a wilful defaulter.
"The RBI's master circular on wilful defaulters along with certain covenants in the loan agreements sanctioned by the company's bankers raise an uncertainty on the impact of this development on the availability of credit facilities to the company.
"The said director has assured the board that he will take appropriate steps to ensure that the operations of the company are not impacted.
"Having received such assurance from the said director and appropriate comfort from the controlling shareholders (Diageo) of the company, the financial statements have been prepared on a going concern basis," United Spirits said in a statement.
Mallya on Thursday denied allegations made by the grievance redressal committee of the United Bank of India and said he would take legal recourse.
"We disagree with the findings of the bank as we were not given any opportunity to represent our case. I have great faith in the judicial system in India and we will defend our position," Mallya said.
Yet, given the mounting pressure from other banks to get back the Rs 4,000 crore (Rs 40 billion) outstanding from Kingfisher Airlines, industry analysts said Mallya was cornered and might have to work fast to sort out this issue.
With Diageo extracting a commitment from Mallya, it is likely that Heineken too will seek a similar one to protect the interest of its business venture with Mallya.
Dina Wadia, partner at law firm J Sagar Associates, told Business Standard there might be unease among banks in dealings with United Spirits, United Breweries and Mangalore Chemicals & Fertilisers if Mallya’s remained on their boards.
"While there is no automatic step that
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